3 * Jalview - A Sequence Alignment Editor and Viewer ($$Version-Rel$$)
4 * Copyright (C) $$Year-Rel$$ The Jalview Authors
6 * This file is part of Jalview.
8 * Jalview is free software: you can redistribute it and/or
9 * modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License
10 * as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3
11 * of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
13 * Jalview is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
14 * WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty
15 * of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR
16 * PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.
18 * You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
19 * along with Jalview. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
20 * The Jalview Authors are detailed in the 'AUTHORS' file.
23 <title>Alignment Annotation</title>
27 <strong>Alignment Annotation</strong>
31 In addition to the definition of groups and sequence features,
32 Jalview can display symbols and graphs under the columns of an
33 alignment. These annotation tracks are displayed in the annotation
34 area below the alignment. The annotation area's visibility is
35 controlled with the <strong>View→Show Annotation</strong>
39 <strong>Types of annotation</strong>
41 <li><a name="seqannots"><strong>Sequence
42 associated annotation.</strong></a><br />Data displayed on sequence
43 annotation rows are associated with the positions of a sequence.
44 Often this is 'Reference annotation' such as secondary structure
45 information derived from 3D structure data, or from the results of
46 sequence based prediction of <a href="../webServices/jnet.html">secondary
47 structure</a> and <a href="../webServices/proteinDisorder.html">disorder</a>.
48 If reference annotation is available for a the currently selected
49 sequences, it can be shown by selecting the <strong>Add
50 Reference Annotation</strong> option in the sequence or selection popup
52 <li><strong>Group associated annotation.</strong><br />Data can
53 be associated with groups defined on the alignment. If sequence
54 groups are defined, <a href="../calculations/conservation.html">Conservation</a>
55 and <a href="../calculations/consensus.html">Consensus</a>
56 annotation can be enabled for each group from the <a
57 href="../menus/alwannotation.html">Annotations menu</a>, or can be
58 imported from a Jalview <a href="annotationsFormat.html">Annotations
60 <li><strong>Alignment associated annotation.</strong><br />Annotation
61 rows associated with columns on the alignment are simply
62 'alignment annotation'. Controls allow you to <a href="#iaannot">interactively
63 create alignment annotation</a> to add labels and symbols to
64 alignment columns. Jalview's consensus, conservation and quality
65 calculations also create histogram and sequence logo annotations
66 on the alignment.</li>
69 <strong>Importing and exporting annotation</strong><br />
70 Annotations on an alignment view are saved in Jalview project files.
71 You can also load <a href="annotationsFormat.html">Annotations
72 Files</a> in order to add any kind of quantitative and symbolic
73 annotations to an alignment. To see an example, use the <strong>Export
74 Features/Annotation</strong> option from an alignment window's File menu.
77 <strong>Layout and display controls</strong><br /> Individual and
78 groups of annotation rows can be shown or hidden using the pop-up
79 menu obtained by right-clicking the label. You can also reorder them
80 by dragging the label to a new position with the left mouse button.
81 The <strong>Annotations</strong> menu provides settings controlling
82 the ordering and display of sequence, group and alignment associated
83 annotation. The <strong>Colour by annotation</strong> option in the
84 colour menu allows annotation to be used to <a
85 href="../colourSchemes/annotationColouring.html">shade the
86 alignment</a>. Annotations can also be used to <a
87 href="../features/columnFilterByAnnotation.html">select or
88 hide columns</a> via the dialog opened from the <strong>Selection</strong>
92 <strong>Sequence Highlighting and Selection from Annotation</strong>
95 A <strong>single click</strong> on the label of an annotation row
96 associated with sequences and sequence groups will cause the
97 associated sequences to be highlighted in the alignment view. <strong>Double
98 clicking</strong> the label will select the associated sequences, replacing
99 any existing selection. Like with other kinds of selection, <strong>shift
100 double-click</strong> will add associated sequences, and <strong>Ctrl
101 (Mac CMD) double-click</strong> will toggle inclusion of associated
102 sequences in the selection.
104 <strong>Interactive Alignment Annotation</strong>
107 <a name="iaannot"> Annotation rows</a> are added using the <strong>Annotation
108 Label</strong> menu, which is obtained by clicking anywhere on the
109 annotation row labels area (below the sequence ID area).
112 <li><strong>Add New Row</strong><br> <em>Adds a new,
113 named annotation row (a dialog box will pop up for you to enter
114 the label for the new row). </em></li>
115 <li><strong>Edit Label/Description</strong><br> <em>This
116 opens a dialog where you can change the name (displayed label),
117 or the description (as shown on the label tooltip) of the
118 clicked annotation. </em></li>
119 <li><strong>Hide This Row</strong><br> <em>Hides the
120 annotation row whose label was clicked in order to bring up the
122 <li><strong>Hide All <em><label></em></strong><br> <em>Hides
123 all annotation rows whose label matches the one clicked. (This
124 option is only shown for annotations that relate to individual
125 sequences, not for whole alignment annotations. Since Jalview
127 <li><strong>Delete This Row</strong><br> <em>Deletes
128 the annotation row whose label was clicked in order to bring up
130 <li><strong>Show All Hidden Rows</strong><br> <em>Shows
131 all hidden annotation rows.</em></li>
132 <li><strong>Export Annotation</strong> <em>(Application
133 only)</em><br> <em>Annotations can be saved to file or
134 output to a text window in either the Jalview annotations format
135 or as a spreadsheet style set of comma separated values (CSV). </em>
137 <li><strong>Show Values in Text Box</strong> <em>(applet
138 only)</em><br> <em>Opens a text box with a list of
139 comma-separated values corresponding to the annotation
140 (numerical or otherwise) at each position in the row. This is
141 useful to export alignment quality measurements for further
143 <li><strong>Scale Label To Column</strong><em>(introduced
144 in 2.5)</em><br> <em>Selecting this toggles whether column
145 labels will be shrunk to fit within each column, or displayed
146 using the view's standard font size.</em></li>
149 <strong>Editing labels and secondary structure annotation
153 Use the <strong>left mouse button</strong> to select a position
154 along the row that are to be annotated - these regions will be
155 coloured red. Press <strong>Control</strong> or <strong>shift</strong>
156 in combination with the left-click to either select an additional
157 position, or a range of positions on the alignment.
160 Once positions have been selected, use the <strong>right
161 mouse button</strong> and select one of the following from the <strong>annotation
165 <li>Helix<br> <em>Marks selected positions with a
166 helix glyph (a red oval), and optional text label (see below). A
167 dialog box will open for you to enter the text. Consecutive
168 ovals will be rendered as an unbroken red line.</em>
170 <li>Sheet<br> <em>Marks selected positions with a
171 sheet glyph (a green arrow oriented from left to right), and
172 optional text label (see below). A dialog box will open for you
173 to enter the text. Consecutive arrows will be joined together to
174 form a single green arrow.</em>
176 <li><a name="rna">RNA Helix</a> (only shown when working with
177 nucleotide sequences)<br> <em>Marks selected positions
178 as participating in a base pair either upstream or downstream.
179 When the dialog box opens, enter a '(' to indicate these bases
180 pair with columns upstream (to right), and ')' to indicate this
181 region pairs with bases to the left of the highlighted columns.
182 Other kinds of base-pair annotation are also supported (e.g. 'A'
183 and 'a', or '<' and '>'), and Jalview will suggest an
184 appropriate symbol based on the closest unmatched parenthesis to
185 the left.<br />If any brackets do not match up, then an orange
186 square will highlight the first position where a bracket was
189 <li>Label<br> <em>Set the text label at the selected
190 positions. A dialog box will open for you to enter the text. If
191 more than one consecutive position is marked with the same
192 label, only the first position's label will be rendered.</em>
194 <li>Colour<br> <em>Changes the colour of the
195 annotation text label.</em>
197 <li>Remove Annotation<br> <em>Blanks any annotation
198 at the selected positions on the row. Note: <strong>This
199 cannot be undone</strong>
204 User defined annotation is stored and retrieved using <a
205 href="../features/jalarchive.html">Jalview Archives</a>.
208 <em>Current Limitations</em>
211 The Jalview user interface does not support interactive creation and
212 editing of quantitative annotation (histograms and line graphs), or
213 to create annotation associated with a specific sequence or group.
214 It is also incapable of annotation grouping or changing the style of
215 existing annotation (e.g. to change between line or bar charts, or
216 to make multiple line graphs). These annotation capabilities are
217 only possible by the import of an <a href="annotationsFormat.html">Annotation